DAVAO CITY - The city government of Davao will still require inbound flight passengers to show an RT-PCR negative test requirement even as local government units were given by the prerogative by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to utilize the vaccination card as an alternative to travel testing requirements.
The city has been implementing City Ordinance No. 0477-21, known as “An Ordinance Providing For Mandatory Testing Prior To Entry Into Davao City Via The Davao International Airport.”
On July 2, the IATF issued Resolution No. 124-B, which provides that presentation of a COVID-19 domestic vaccination card duly issued by a legitimate vaccinating establishment, or certificate of quarantine completion showing the holder's vaccination "shall be sufficient alternatives to any testing requirement (before travel or upon arrival) which the local government unit of destination may require."
"Initially, nagsulti ang IATF na vaccine cards na ang gamiton then after two days I think nagsulti sila na they will leave it up to the LGUs so ang atoa is RT-PCR testing gihapon (The IATF initially said that vaccination cards will be used but after two days, I think they said they will leave it up to the LGUs so for us, we will still require the negative RT-PCR test result)," City Mayor Sara Duterte on Monday, July 12 said during her Special Hours program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR).
Duterte said the RT-PCR negative test requirement is still necessary since even those who are fully vaccinated can still be infected with COVID-19.
"Posible gihapon syang matakdan og COVID-19 albeit mild or asymptomatic na iyang case pero nagadala gihapon sya or posible gihapon sya mag-carry sa virus. So, angay gihapon nga itesting ang mga travelers (The fully vaccinated person may still contract COVID-19 although the case may be mild or asymptomatic, he or she can still be a carrier of the virus. So it is still necessary to test the travelers)."
Meanwhile, Duterte said she hopes that the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status of Davao City will no longer continue. The city's current MECQ status, which started on July 1, will end on July 15.
Duterte noted that from over 5,000 active cases two weeks ago, the city recorded a total of 3,203 active cases as of July 11.
"It can be nag work from home or alternative work arrangement sad sila (It can be that others are on work from home or alternative work arrangement). It can be the life cycle of the virus. If you can remember, four months ta nag surge last time, naa na ta sa two months karon, mag three months na atong surge (we had our surge for four months last time, and we are now in two months, going three months of surge)," Duterte said.
She added that it could also be because of the vaccination.
"Lain-lain na sya na possible na factors nag-contribute sa pagbaba sa atong COVID-19 cases (Different possible factors contributed to the drop in our COVID-19 cases)," the mayor said.
From general community quarantine (GCQ), Davao City was placed under MECQ from June 5 to 20 before it was extended to June 21 to June 30.
Duterte said they have not yet discussed the possibility of requesting to downgrade the city's community quarantine classification to general community quarantine (GQC).
"But we are readying possible supporting arguments kung ngano mag request ta og GCQ, which would touch on sa atoang ginabuhat sa prevention, enforcement, testing, and tracing, isolation facilities nato and of course sa vaccination program nato (But we are readying possible supporting arguments why we will request for a GCQ, which would touch on what we're doing in prevention, enforcement, testing, and tracing as well as our isolation facilities and our vaccination program)," she said.
As of July 12, the Department of Health (DOH) Davao Center for Health Development reported 459 new cases of COVID-19 in the region bringing the total number of active cases to 7,957. Of the new cases 258 were from Davao City, 42 from Davao de Oro, 44 from Davao del Norte, 36 from Davao del Sur, 37 from Davao Occidental, and 42 from Davao Oriental.
Davao City has recorded a total of 27,295 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 3,181 remaining active cases.